Multiculturalism

It always amazes me when I occasionally look around my work environment, the variety of people that I work with. The operating room is staffed with people from all backgrounds which represent all areas of the world. Just a couple of generations ago my ancestors were being marched into ovens while others were slaves or living in repressive regimes. Yet, we all assemble here through some fluke of history and migration and arrive at the same work place.

Once in a while I will get an elderly Polish or German patient who has recently immigrated and was certainly in Europe during WWII. I consider what this person was doing when my ancestors were being rounded up into ghettos and later sent off to concentration camps. Here they are coming to me for help with their medical problems while they may have been complicit in murdering my relatives. I remain professional and imagine perhaps they were one of the righteous gentiles that saved Jews and I should not imagine the worst. Through a fluke of history, because of their persecution, my parents arrived in the US well before these immigrants have arrived. This has given me the advantage of having grown up in the US and benefited from an excellent education and opportunities while they are just now reaching the US seeking their opportunities. It's a cruel irony that 65 years ago these same people who may have been contributing to my relative's murder are now coming to me for medical help to save their lives.

On a lighter note, I work with a large group of Korean-Americans and as a Jewish-American I think we work very well together. But there are definitely some distinct cultural differences between us. For one, in our lunch room there has to be two refrigerators. One for the Korean food and the other for typical American fare. The reason for this is the odor from Korean food permeates every other food item in the fridge so that everything ends up smelling like kimchi. Kimchi is a fermented cabbage that is the staple of Korean food and has a very distinct smell that many non-Koreans find offensive. It is supposedly very healthy and was likely used because kimchi can be preserved without refrigeration. This is similar to Jewish pickling of vegetables, fish, and meats for preservation.

Kimchi can be found in many products like kimchi soda, kimchi candy, and kimchi ice cream. But I was talking to one of the staff who is Korean and worked in the past in a Kosher deli. She was talking to me about Jewish food and I was making fun of kimchi and we thought about a combination of the two. So we thought of a few ideas like kimchi latkes or kimchi kugel but in honor of the upcoming Purim holiday I think kimchi hamantaschen was the best idea. Hamantaschen are cookies folded into a triangular shape and filled with jam that represent the ears of Haman, the villain of the Purim story.

We decided we would create the first kimchi hamantaschen and test market the cookie. It would be a huge success and we would each be able to retire and reap the rewards of our intercultural creation. The only problem is I find the idea of a kimchi cookie to be extremely distasteful. But what better way to remember Haman then to fill his cookie with gross fermented cabbage.